Author's note: Past chapters are being improved and added to, so if you don't want to miss anything, I suggest you go back and read them.
the major changes are:
Chapter two, Tomoko and Hinata's relationship is explained in more detail.
Chapter three, Tomoko's feelings on Haruo being away so much.
Chapter four, more annoying Tomoko admirers and explaining why she can't read.
Chapter five, Sasuke and Tomoko's first encounter.
Chapter eight, Tomoko's flashback.
More changes are bound to come. I'm taking some of my reader's advice and tweaking the chapters, and I can assure you there are worth going over again. I will keep writting new chapters as I go along, so don't worry about me stopping again.
JustPlainOldMe requested if I could produce a picture of both Tomoko and Haruo, which is understandable. Unfortunately, my drawing is shockingly bad, so I'm not sure anything I do would justify them. However, if anyone is willing to have a go a drawing them and send me the link, then don't let me stop you.
I'll have a crack at it myself, but no promises.
Also, I've created a poll, concerning what I should do for a summoning technique that Tomoko should learn, you should be able to see it on my profile page.
Thanks for your time, and enjoy the chapter!
:)
Usually, under normal circumstances, I would be thrilled to see Naruto. However, since now he's completely blown his cover to the enemy with his flashy entrance, all I wanted to do was throttle him.
"Now that I'm here" he said confidently "everything's going to be just fine".
'You have got to be kidding me!'
"The main character of a story usually appears like this and defeats to enemy in a flash!" he declared.
I felt a wet drop form on my head "what stories have you been reading?" I mumbled. Sasuke to, had a very pissed off expression across his face, probably thinking the same as me.
"All right" announced the orange dressed ninja "let's do this! Shadow Replication…"
"No Naruto! stop!" I managed to yell, but it was already too late, Zabuza began his attack and threw several shuriken stars in his direction.
However, it was intercepted by… Haku?
"Why?" was all I could say.
"Oy?!" I heard Kakashi yell angrily "what kind of idiot tries to execute a technique right in front of an enemy?"
Naruto made a whining noise, clearly realising his mistake.
"A ninja's essence lies within deception" Kakashi continued to rant "it relies on your ability to deceive your enemy."
Whilst Kakashi explained how ninja's perform a technique, I saw an opportunity to try and sneak out of the dome of mirrors. Slowly I crawled along the floor, every muscle in my body ached, but I tried my best to ignore it.
"Oh crap!" I heard Naruto cry "I came here to help, though…"
Sasuke noticed what I was doing, but didn't utter a word, I'm glad. He knew well enough that we were both more likely to survive this if one of us was able to escape…
"Haku, what's the meaning of this?" Zabuza questioned.
The young boy stayed silent for a moment as he stood up, "Zabuza-san, leave him to me. Please, let me do this my way".
I ceased my actions for a moment, taking note that he was now aware of his surroundings once again, I just had to wait until he was distracted.
"What did you say?" Naruto demanded angrily.
He remained silence once again, which seemed to convince his mentor not to interfere, however, he stated that Haku was too easy on his enemy.
"I'm sorry" Haku replied glumly.
'What's up this guy! It seems to me he doesn't want to kill us, yet he is doing so because of this Bastard!' I thought. Although Zabuza was right, he was going easy on us. None of his needles had hit my vital organs, which in a sense, was worse than killing us off straight away.
"Then, I'm going beat you first" said Naruto confidently whilst pointing at him. He then relaxed again, and stated "That mask… So you were one of Zabuza's men". He took a breath, "How dare you trick us!" he exclaimed.
Haku, bowed his head slightly and said "I'm sorry".
Well… I wasn't expecting that, this guy was so confusing. Naruto seemed to be caught off guard to, so Haku repeated what Kakashi said, "The duty of a ninja is to deceive and to find an unguarded spot".
He was getting distracted again, so I used this chance to crawl further to the edge. I was now at arms reach, holding out my hand as far as I could.
"Please don't take it personally" I heard Haku say, and without moving his gaze from Naruto, he threw a needle, as fast as light, and stabbed me through my bicep, reaching the bone.
Extreme pain shot up my arm, causing me to scream out in agony. I quickly held my hand over the wound as blood, slowly started oozing out, and drip on the floor.
"Tomoko!" Sasuke yelled out, sounding incredibly worried. I couldn't answer him, the pain made me lose my voice, and choke on the sobs erupting from my throat.
"You Bastard!" Sasuke yelled out in fury and threw a kunai at our enemy, only to have him dodge it flawlessly.
It was only now, that Naruto noticed the two of us. Took him damn long enough!
"I didn't forget about the both of you" Haku told us.
I looked up at Naruto whilst sitting up, cradling my injured arm in the process. I tried to move my hand but it was no use, the needle had done some serious damage, and trapped all my muscles so I could barely move my fingers.
"I would have liked for you two to just lie there quietly" he confessed, "but I guess I can't expect that".
'Oh no, this isn't good'.
"Very well" he spoke casually, "I will finish the match with you first" and started walking back towards the mirrors.
"H-hey!" Naruto yelled, clearly not amused that he'd just been blown off.
"Naruto-kun, I'll deal with you later" was all Haku said and once again disappeared into mirror.
"Shit…" I mumbled "he's coming…" I tried to stand up, only to fall backwards slightly, and land next to Sasuke, who was now, sat up in a crouch position. Haku again appeared in the mirror in front of us, staring at us.
"How bad is your arm?" he asked in a whisper.
I sucked in a breath "pretty bad, I need to take this needle out".
Sasuke nodded, he shifted his focus back to Haku, who was still in front of us. Carefully he went for another weapon.
"This way" we suddenly heard from behind us.
I looked back to the front to see he had disappeared, great… now he was playing mind games with us. Not going to lie, but I was starting to panic a bit, especially with my wound.
We both watch as he slowly started appearing in all the mirrors, shit! was he going to attack again.
I tried once more to move, but it was too late. Like a hail storm, Needles descended upon us, torturing our skin with the sharp cruel needles. Sasuke managed to shield himself with his arms, but I was a sitting duck, getting scratched at every corner of my body.
The shower stopped and Sasuke fell backwards, whilst I collapsed forward, where I was sitting. My chest heaved in and out heavily, my skin covered in scratches and crimson blood.
"Tomoko" I heard Sasuke groan, as he began to crawl closer to me. I stayed in place, in too much pain to move. I felt his hand on my shoulder, and quickly pull me upright. I cried out in pain slightly, but I knew it had to be done.
"What kind of technique is he using?" I heard Sasuke ask himself, "The possibilities include him putting replications in the mirrors, and making them throw the needles all at once…"
"No" I said quietly, as I went to grab the needle stabbed in my arm, "its way too fast for that possibility to be true". Quickly and harshly, I yanked the needle out of my arm. Once again, harsh pain shot up but I had mobility back.
"Besides…" I began moving my hand around and flexing my fingers "even if he is just using replications, what's the point of these mirrors".
Sasuke stared at me as if to say 'you have a point', but there was no doubt in our minds that the mirrors were vital to his attacks.
Sasuke's attention turned to my arm, "you're bleeding out like crazy".
"I know" I answered and reached for the inside of my pouch, in there was some bandages that I always kept spare. As quickly as I could, I wrapped the wound and tied it into a little knot. "That should hold for now" I muttered.
My original plan to escape and attack from the outside failed. However, if me and Sasuke attacked from the inside, and Naruto did the same as I was planning to do, we may stand a chance of figuring out how this technique works.
Now the challenge was to let Naruto know what he had to do.
"Hey! I came to help you!"
I shook my head and blinked, only do see Naruto crouching in front of us with a grin on his face.
'No! Naruto you knuckle head!'
Sasuke to, didn't look impressed what so ever.
"Are you okay, Sasuke? Tomoko?" Naruto asked sounding chipper for some reason.
I couldn't believe this! Naruto was an idiot! A complete an absolute numskull! For the first time, I think in about five years, me and Sasuke desired the same thing, to kill our yellow haired teammate that was grinning like a moron!
"You idiot!" Sasuke snapped "If you're a ninja, be more careful!"
"What's with that attitude? I came to help you!" Naruto defended.
I face palmed my forehead, 'That's it, we are completely screwed'.
"If you come into the mirrors as well…" I began to explain, but Sasuke cut me off, stating it was complete waste of time and to forget about it, and threw in the insult of calling him idiot again.
"Idiot!" Naruto screeched "What do you mean idiot!?"
Sasuke clearly incredibly agitated at what had just happened, found his strength and stood up, declaring that he would destroy the mirrors.
Like a flash, he formed several seals, finishing with the tiger symbol. "Fire element…"
"Hey, what are you going to do?" Naruto asked.
"Tomoko is badly hurt, she needs to get out of here" He stated. "These mirrors are made of frozen water."
He took a breath and yelled "blazing fireball!" and blew out a gushed of red-hot flames, that erupted in front of us. Unfortunately, the flames had no effect and the ice mirrors, remained intact.
"It didn't work at all!" Naruto moaned.
"It won't melt with that kind of firepower" Haku casually explained. a blinding light shone from the mirrors, and for the third time, his needles showered upon us, only it was so fast, I did not have time to process where they were coming from.
The three of us were knocked backwards again, I unfortunately landed on my bad arm.
Naruto sat up "Damn it, where is he attacking from?" he asked loudly "are those replications?"
I too, sat up, cradling my wounded arm once more "no, there's something else to his technique… ah!"
Sasuke, who was closest to my arm, looked at it in horror. The bandaged had been cut off, and rendered unless, blood once again gushed out violently.
"remove your scarf".
I blinked "pardon?"
Sasuke began taking a kunai knife out "take off your scarf and bite into it, this is going to hurt" he once again did the tiger seal, and blew flames onto the metal, making it glow an orange heat.
I finally pieced to together what he wanted to do and did as he said. Biting the fabric, I screamed into the cotton as he carefully placed the red, hot blade over the wound, cauterising immediately. I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt, it did, like a bitch!
I dropped the scarf from my mouth, which Sasuke quickly grabbed and tied around my now, cauterised wound.
"Where's the real one?" Naruto asked, he was now standing up, searching each of the mirrors.
"There's no use in trying to follow me with your eyes" Haku informed us "I will never be caught".
"No…" I mumbled "there's got to be a way, every technique has a weakness".
Naruto, clearly becoming desperate, performed his shadow clone justu and went to on the attack.
"No stop it!" Sasuke yelled, but Naruto didn't listen, claiming he would destroy all the mirrors and see which is real. But it was all in vain as Haku destroyed them all, in the speed of light.
Naruto collapsed on the ground and Haku reappeared in the mirror in front of us, "This is a traveling technique that utilises mirror reflections that only reflect me" he explained, "From my speed, you three look like you're standing still".
"Damn it" I heard Naruto curse. I now noticed he had sat up, blood clearly visible from his forehead, "So what? I can't die here… I still have a dream I need to achieve…"
'Naruto?'
"The dream to make the villagers recognise me and become the Hokage!"
Haku became silent for a while, as if he was remembering something. "It is difficult for me to become a pure ninja" he finally spoke, "if it's possible, I do not what to kill you, and I do not want to make you kill me".
Okay, where the hell was this come from?!
"However…" he continued "if you are going to fight me, I will kill my compassion with a blade and become a ninja".
"Haku" I called out "you just said that you don't want to kill us, but then turn around and say you'll do it anyway! That's nothing but Hypocritical!"
Haku bowed his head slightly "you are correct, I don't wish to kill, especially you. But this bridge is a battleground, that leads to the dreams of many people. I will fight for my dream, and you will fight for your dream. Please… do not hold any grudges".
I sighed heavily, "you are one complicated person Haku…"
"I want to protect an important person" he admitted, "I want to work for him, fight for him, and make his dreams come true…"
Wait, was he talking about Zabuza?
"That is my dream, in order to make it come true, I will become a ninja. I will kill you!"
As twisted as it sounded, I kind of felt a tonne of respect for the guy. What he said was true, we all become ninja to achieve our dreams. We would do anything to achieve those dreams, even if it were to force us… in taking another person's life.
I stood up, much to my teammates surprise. I'm sick of being a sitting duck! Now was my time to fight!
"Tomoko…" Sasuke began standing up.
"Shut up" I cut in, "my arm is fine thanks to you, now lets figure out how to beat this guy".
Naruto nodded, getting to his feet as well "Yeah, just because I screwed up the first time, doesn't mean I'm going to quit!" He then began forming seals, "I'll try as many times as I need to! Shadow Replication!"
"No Naruto stop!" I yelled, along with Sasuke who said "Stop it!" But when has Naruto ever listened to anyone. Again, his clones went in for the attack, and failed as Haku took them out, one by one.
Splash!
Wait a second, what was that?
Splash!
There it was again!
But I had no more time to think, as Haku rained down a dozens needles upon us, scratching our skin once again. Naruto fell back, but it didn't take long for him, to get back onto his feet.
"What the hell…" he muttered.
I ignored him, instead, I tried to figure out where those splashes were coming from. Sasuke stood up, staring firmly in one place, as if… he saw him.
No he couldn't have, absolutely no one could have been able to keep up with the speed Haku was going, not with any average… eyes?
Wait! Sasuke! He does not have ordinary eyes, he's a Uchiha!
"One more time…" spoke Naruto and again, did the Shadow Replication justu.
Thinking fast, I kicked the water that was on the floor, into the air. Haku's attack commenced, and again the water splashed around in the air. Now there was still no way I could hit him… but someone else probably could.
However, Sasuke obviously didn't catch on, and we ended up being victims of Haku's assault, his needles slicing and scratching my body. I was beginning to get adjusted to the pain, however, I knew we wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.
Slowly I pushed my body weight back up, "S-Sasuke… the water…"
Sasuke sat up in a crouch position "I know, I saw it".
I crawled towards him "listen, I can't track his movement, not with these eyes. You however, have a slight advantage".
Sasuke looked at me as if I had two heads "are you crazy!" he whispered angrily.
I smirked "what happened to that cockiness? You saw the water, track his movements with that".
He gave me a blank look, then made his usual "ahem" noise, "keep kicking that water" he ordered.
I nodded, accepting his suggestion "okay…"
Naruto suddenly began charging, and made more clones again.
"What a stubborn boy" I heard Haku groan and went for his attack.
'This was my chance'
I kicked the water high in the air, forcing Haku to go through it. Sasuke immediately caught on and did his Fire Ball justu.
Haku was taken a little bit off guard, but he managed to dodge it.
"Again?" I asked forcefully.
Sasuke didn't answer, as he was consentrating on the enemy's movements, he perform the justu again, this time burning the trouser leg of Haku.
"Yes!" I cheered throwing my fist in the air. Naruto was thrown backwards, but he was back on his feet again, get as fast. I glanced at Sasuke, who was panting heavily. "You did it!" I informed him pointing at Haku "look".
He smirked, now noticing his handy work. true, it wasn't much, but it was certainly a start.
"Still need me to kick the water about?" I asked him cheekily.
He chuckled under his breath "no, I think I got this".
I threw him a stern look "don't get your hopes up, we still have a long way to go".
"I know" he replied "you don't have to tell me twice, I've learnt from the first time".
"Damn it, we were so close" Naruto snapped with his fist in the air.
"Naruto" Sasuke spoke, "can you still move?"
Naruto turned to us, "of course I can! I'm still okay!" he exclaimed crossly.
"You're a terrible lier Naruto" I pointed out, it was painfully obvious that he was exhausted.
A bright flash blinded us, "here he comes!" I called.
Sasuke got right to the point, and performed the fire ball justu again.
"Naruto run! Get out of here and attack from the outside!"
Naruto stared at him blankly at first, but then understood the memo and began running.
"You to Tomoko!" he yelled.
I shook my head "don't be an idiot! I'm not leaving you behind!" I shot back. Sasuke was about to argue, but I cut him off by getting out my kunai, and charging at one of the mirrors.
"I'll try to distract him!"
"Will you be able to?" Haku asked us, as he was rearing for an attack, he knocked Naruto back. Only for the orange dressed ninja to jump back up and charge again.
"I'm not going to lose!" Naruto bellowed.
I too kept running, trying to get his attention. It obviously worked, because Sasuke blew out his fire ball in my direction. However, Haku was too fast, flawlessly dodged it and threw a needle at Sasuke, which stabbed him in the shoulder.
"Sasuke!" I called, only to be kicked in the stomach and thrown backwards. I tumbled to the ground, holding my tummy in pain. Naruto too got kicked back… damn it! We're back where we began.
Sasuke grabbed the needle and yanked it out of his shoulder "that was good".
"Huh?" I breathed.
"What?" Naruto spoke.
"Let's to it again" Sasuke told us.
I blinked at couple of times, "right".
Naruto agreed to and we repeated what we did before, the three of us ran in different directions.
Haku however, didn't seem fazed, "I won't let it happen the way you expect, I'll stop you first". Haku threw his needle, stabbing it straight in Sasuke's kneecap. More needles came, piercing his right thigh, both arms and other leg. Sasuke tried his best to shield himself, but still, he cried out in agony.
Naruto stopped running and called out to his teammate, only to have the same done to him, only this time it was along his back.
'No! I have to get out!'
"Too late…"
I blinked as I saw Haku, dead in front of me, several needles held in his hands coming towards me, and knocking me backwards. It happened in slow motion, the weapon ripping my flesh, the blood pouring out. I let out a throttle, coughing up blood as I went along.
I landed with a violent thug on the floor, immediately cradling my stomach. Haku, was standing over me, his needle raised above his head.
"N-no…" I spluttered, holding up my hand in a stopping motion.
"Forgive me" he whispered.
"NO!" I clenched my eyes shut, a sudden wave of power shot from my core, and up my arm.
Flashes of green blinded my sight.